Logger to Kansans: Rural America being 'protected to death'

Bruce Vincent, a third-generation logger from Libby, Mont., speaks to a crowd at the Soybean Expo on Wednesday about how to keep environmental activist groups at bay.

Bruce Vincent, a third-generation logger from Libby, Mont., speaks to a crowd at the Soybean Expo on Wednesday about how to keep environmental activist groups at bay.

A Montana logger speaking to Kansas farmers Wednesday in Topeka urged them to change the cultural conversation about protecting rural areas.

Bruce Vincent spoke at the Kansas Soybean Expo at the Kansas Expocentre about what he called a “collision of visions” for rural America and how people who work there can protect their interests. Many urban dwellers like rural areas and want to protect them, but don’t believe environmental protection and human activity can co-exist, he said.

“When they come to Kansas to try to find Dorothy, they fall in love,” he said. “Rural America is being protected to death.”

The Kansas Soybean Expo was being held in conjunction with the Topeka Farm Show.

Vincent said his family’s logging business was forced to stop cutting trees after a lawsuit citing the Endangered Species Act challenged the way the U.S. Forest Service uses logging as part of its forest management plan. What that does, however, is leave the forest more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires, he said.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which has filed suits against multiple logging projects in Montana, said in a news release that logging would harm species that use fallen trees as habitat and that grizzly bears need more habitat in the area.

Vincent said people who work in industries involving natural resources, such as farming and logging, need to answer questions about their practices and reshape public perception because the public often sees a choice between development without regard for the environment and no economic development at all.

“The American public is making the right choice, but they’re being given the wrong things to choose from,” he said.

Jody Longshore, director of corporate responsibility for Cargill, said U.S. farmers have made great strides in sustainability, but they need to continue to grow crops more efficiently to feed the world’s growing population. Cargill makes animal feed, ingredients for human food and personal care products, among other things.

They also need to be able to “tell their story” to people who haven’t grown up around agriculture and are increasingly concerned about the safety and environmental impact of their food, Longshore said.

“One of the luxuries that we have in the developed world is that people are very disconnected from the source of their food,” he said.